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AUDW
2005 Round Up.
For the past thirteen years now,
Melbourne has played host to the annual drummer's festival, the
Ultimate Drummer's Weekend. In that time it has gone from strength
to strength, and is now the largest event of it's kind in the
Southern Hemisphere. This year there were patrons from South America,
England, Europe, and Asia, as well as locals from New Zealand
and the South Pacific! The combination of masterful musical performances,
workshops, and a parade of instruments at the expo (together with
performances and product demonstrations) make for a heady combination
that proves irresistible to drummers far and wide. This year's
line up of performers was another drumming tour de force: suitably
renamed as Australia's Ultimate Drummers Weekend (AUDW), the 2005
festival featured the musical and drumming talents of Melbourne's
very own Virgil Donati (lately of Los Angeles), together with
Will Kennedy, Mike Mangini, Jeremy Colson and Johnny Rabb from
the US. The Drumbassadors from Holland, featuring Rene Creemers
and Wim de Vries, demonstrated how musical drumset duets can be,
whilst young Australian Andrew Fisenden showed a capacity audience
just why noted Australian Jazz trumpet legend, James Morrison,
has been using him on tour.
The Saturday concert this year kicked off a new tradition, with
last year's winner of the open section of the Up and Coming Drummer
competition, Damian Corniola, invited to open the festival
concert (this will happen with each of the open category winners
from now on). Damian played with style and taste, as well as power
and technique, working through some complex odd time grooves and
musical arrangements. Damian's musical development has been on
show at the festival for many years now, and he is developing
into another fine representative of the Melbourne drumming scene
so much so that following AUDW Damian will perform at the Mendoza
Drum Festival in Argentina.
The Drumbassadors, Rene and Wim were one of this year's
big highlights; their warmth, humour, great arrangements and consummate
playing skills were all evident. With a musical and visual style
that required tremendous commitment to detail, these guys put
the dynamic back into duo as it were, with some wonderful drum
set compositions, and some fantastic interactive work. Johnny
Rabb is into industrial funk and Hip Hop grooves, and his
performance was heavy on these ideas, played with amazing dynamic
and speed control. His use of the so-called 'freestroke', a very
cute multiple rebound idea that Johnny has down pretty near perfectly,
was worth the price of admission.
Virgil Donati is never one
to shy away from a solo, and on Saturday he again showed the Melbourne
audience just what makes him such a special player. From the purely
technical standpoint, Virgil does things that amaze an audience;
his rhythmic and co-ordination ideas are taken to musical extremes,
and his speed, power and control are simply awesome. Virgil continually
reinvents himself on the drumset, trying new set-ups and ideas,
and his expressive abilities always ensure a heart stopping performance.
Musical heavyweights abound at drum festivals, and Mike Mangini
fits that description amply. Having only recently become familiar
with Mike's work, it was a pleasure to see him in action once
more. Mike's dedication to improvement comes across in all that
he does, and his unique approach to the momentous task of learning
to learn have stamped him as one of the leaders in the fusion
field. His individual set up, featuring a symmetrical vision of
the kit, makes for a whole new visual approach to the act of playing,
and in Mike's hands opens up a world of musical possibilities.
His humour and musical skill were on show to a sell out audience
that appreciated all that he did.
Sunday's concert opened with Andrew Fisenden, one of Australia's
youngest emerging players. At only 20, Andrew is fast becoming
the jazz player of note, and at the festival he also demonstrated
some pretty good funk and fusion chops as well. A well-schooled
player, Andrew showcased some great feel playing, and some excellent
dynamic control. If feel is your thing, and of course it is, then
you have to concede that it comes in all shapes and sizes, and
sometimes in strange combinations. In Jeremy Colson you
have a mixture of punk freneticism and sheer energy, with the
musical discipline of fusion. Currently working with Steve Vai,
Jeremy plays with a good deal of physical intensity, and this
was evident in his performance at the festival. Jeremy focused
on some of his recent work with Steve Vai, explaining and demonstrating
his approach to the music, which was full of raw but controlled
energy.
Will Kennedy is another masterful musician with a solid
groove and a huge command of the jazz idiom and it's heritage.
Will paid tribute to one of his mentors, Tony Williams, in a performance
that included playing 'Proto Cosmos' from Tony's 'Believe It'
album. Will admired Tony's musical approach, his melodic sense
as well as his technical ideas, and Will ably demonstrated his
own inspirational approach to the drum set, with some great soloing
and some fantastic groove playing.
Virgil had his family at this year's festival, and they, along
with the whole audience were treated to some of the best fusion
playing seen in Melbourne. The Virgil Donati Band, consisting
of Tony MacAlpine on guitar, Rufus Philpot on bass and Steve Weingart
on keyboards, finished this year's festival with a superlative
performance that had everything. Virgil's compositional style
reflects his rhythmic style - rich and complex; put that together
with a take-no-prisoners approach to the playing, and you got
one very exciting musical performance. The band played a monster
set that finished with yet another amazing solo from Virgil, with
an encore performance of a blistering tempo jazz original from
Virgil that had some of the best eight bar trading I have ever
seen or heard. Exhilarating stuff, and a fitting finale to yet
another top quality festival concert!
The AUDW annual Up and Coming Drummer competitions were another
highlight for me; watching performances from some of the youngest
players in Australia is always inspirational, and this year was
no exception. I have seen the standard of students rise to greater
heights over the past decade, and in some measure, the festival
competitions provide a yardstick for achievement. The judging
panel for this year's competitions included Graham Morgan, Brian
Czempinski, Bruce Howieson, myself, together with Mike Mangini,
The Drumbassadors and Will Kennedy. In the Junior section Matthew
Damon (12) came first, Oscar Sah Haber (11) second, and Thomas
Von Einem (10) third. The Intermediate section was won by Joseph
Taranto (16), with Alex Bradfield (16) second, and Angus Tarnawski
(16) third. The Open category winner was Daniel Gullaci, with
Leigh Fisher second, and Gene Peterson third. Sponsors for this
year's competitions included Drumscene Magazine, Sabian cymbals,
Premier drums, Pro Mark sticks, and Aquarian heads. Congratulations
to all who participated!
As usual, the Expo was crammed with a full range of kits from
Premier, Pearl, Tama, Mapex, Gretsch, Yamaha, Slingerland and
Sonor, as well as new products Dunnett Drums and South Australian
drum makers Dee-Jay Drums. All major cymbal brands were there
too, together with a full array of percussion products and electronic
kits from Roland and Yamaha. With everything up for sale, there
was a lot of buzz happening all weekend in the expo area. What
a great weekend to just hang and absorb it all, or perhaps to
pick up some excellent bargains. Look out for all the highlights
on the annual DVD release, and start saving for next year - I
hear it's going to be even bigger and better!
PS: A special thank you to all the folks from Drumtek and all
the other distributors for their commitment and involvement. Another
special thanks to the sound and lighting guys who do such a good
job all weekend. The biggest thank you must go to Frank Corniola,
who is the founder and main driving force behind AUDW. Frank doesn't
like me blowing his trumpet, but without Franks passion, organization
and financial backing, this weekend just wouldn't happen, so thanks
Frank for thirteen of the best weekends I have had!
Click
here to see the Photos from AUDW 2005
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